Guests

Jane Gleeson- White

PhD student in creative writing at the University of New South Wales and has degrees in economics and literature from the University of Sydney and was an intern at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice. She blogs at bookishgirl.com.au.

Comments (4)

mark :

Sally :

03 Sep 2013 9:46:45pm

I loved this talk! Which was a total surprise, seeing as I'm notoriously not interested in money or accounting, and have a lifelong love of language and story and words. Thank you for broadcasting it, and to Jane for writing and researching and telling it. In a way it was perfect that it was followed by Awaye and that lecture by Nikia, especially the stuff about critiquing and enquiring into whiteness. Because in a way this is what Jane was doing - a history of numbers and accounting is like the creation story of capitalism and the Enlightenment - a white dreaming, in a sense. And for me, there is a lot of pain and shame in this story, especially because it is still the source of so much anguish and loss in this world, as well as gain. And with pain and shame it's so easy to go to denial and avoidance. For me, there was almost something healing in listening to this history in such a calm, clear story-telling. It was a way to meet it in a different way, to meet it at all. That might just sound even more preposterous than some of Jane's claims for double entry accounting! Also I love that the idea of Zero came from the Hindus. Of course it did. And we still have so much more depth to learn about that Zero. :)

Steven Clark :

16 Sep 2013 5:11:36pm

The Ford Pinto Myth has been long debunked - including in the Rutger's Law Review over twenty years ago.

I understand that it's a widely espoused topic but the discredited Rod Dowie article at Mother Jones was the initial source. That they even leave it online is surprising. I hope you read the debunking. It's informative. Otherwise, very interesting book - I may buy it on my Christmas list this year.